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What Some People Will Compare – Keep and Evernote?

There have been articles and blog posts out the wazoo over the past few days, after Google released Keep, it’s new note taking add-on to Google Drive. The bulk of them have been comparing Keep to Evernote, pondering whether the Big G’s new feature is an Evernote killer.

It’s amazing what people will use to put a story out.

Now look, I’m a big fan of Google (although I also have lots of reservations about them) and I use MANY of their products. I have 5 Gmail accounts that I can remember. Drive, docs, calendar, Play music, Now, on and on – Google surely knows my life better than I do at this point. Keep is a tool I’m sure to use – for something. But replace Evernote? Really, have you even used Keep?

Bicycle vs Cadillac

Keep is handy, no doubt about it – if you are a Google devotee, and use Drive regularly, and have an Android device. Otherwise, it’s really pretty weak. As a standalone note-taking app, I can probably think of around 10 or 12 others off the top of my head that are better. And when I say better, I mean way better. You can’t even sort your notes in Keep other than with different colored tiles. No tags? Come on.

Evernote is confusing to some people because of the extensive features it does have, and because a lot of folks still haven’t grasped the use of or power of tags. I guess G released Keep in the basic form that they did to attract those very people. But the bloggers comparing it to Evernote are not fashion writers for goodness sake, they’re tech writers, which can mean only one thing: two big names in one article gets readers.

Keep is a Huffy bike compared to the Escalade that Evernote is, and a bike with training wheels at that. It’s embarrassing to see the likes of Wired, the Huffington Post, ZDnet, and PC World considering whether Keep is an Evernote killer, regardless of their final analysis. At least Gizmodo stated in their article title that it’s a non-starter issue.

The Future Isn’t Here Yet

I’m also not stupid, and I’m fairly up on consumer tech, particularly web and mobile apps. I know how Google plays their game, and Keep could very well become a player in the extreme noting world, if they continue development based on adoption. Otherwise it’s still very useful, it’s just not what everyone’s saying it is.

So wait until there is a comparison to make before you start making comparisons, Mr. tech-writer-for-a-big-site. Until then, you aren’t helping the public, you are fishing for hits on your site. Stop it.

As a post-script, I have been pondering running a series of posts about tech, mobile/web apps, and related items. So, since I value the opinions of both readers of this blog :), would it be out of place or distracting to to do this here, or should I start a new wp site for this? Let me know what you think.